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Q. A few weeks ago I could not get out of my chair to go to bed. I was telling my body "stand up" but my back and legs just wouldn’t respond.
I eventually managed to lever myself up with my arms but I had considerable difficulty getting to bed. This was odd because I am in pretty good physical shape.
About a week before this event I had bought two gallons of grapefruit juice because it was on sale and had been consuming quite a large quantity daily. I have been on Lipitor for about 18 months. Could my back pain and muscle weakness be explained by Lipitor plus grapefruit juice?
A. Grapefruit interacts with dozens of drugs, raising blood levels. This may increase the risk of side effects.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs like atorvastatin (Lipitor), lovastatin (Mevacor) and simvastatin (Zocor) are all affected by grapefruit. Since muscle weakness and pain are possible side effects, it is conceivable that your experience was triggered by a grapefruit interaction that resulted in an overdose. Other drugs that are affected by grapefruit include some anti-seizure medicine, estrogen hormones, heart and blood pressure pills and sleeping pills.
We discuss this issue in far greater depth in our Guides to Grapefruit Interactions and Cholesterol Lowering Drugs. They can also be downloaded for $2 from the Website: www.peoplespharmacy.com.
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Is there any way to really tell if your muscles are weakening from a statin drug? I SEEMED to have a lot of pain after being on pravachol for 2 years- hard to get out of my car. I have a lot of arthritic pain, though, and it was helping my neuropathy. Is there a lab test or some way to know for SURE??
I love grapefruit. However, I have strong feeling that grapefruit also causes the problem of my back pain (even without medication). I had a really bad back pain more than 2 years ago. It lasted a few months. The back pain was on and off and I was looking for any thing that could contribute at the time. I stopped eating grapefruit because I was suspicious about it.
Since then, I swim 30min-1 hr everyday to excise my back and was back pain free for almost 2 years. I feel my back muscle is strong and I even include 250 m butterfly every day. My wife bought a large bag of grapefruit from Costco 3 days ago. I couldn't resist and ate one everyday. Suddenly my back pain came back yesterday. So severe that I couldn't even put on my socks. I can't think of anything out of routine in the last few days other than the grapefruit (I ate 2 big ones the day before yesterday)!